


While Watching The Sputnik Crash And Burn

by Lwoorl



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Super Sons (Comics), Superman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Grown up jon, Light Angst, light fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 06:27:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18733462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lwoorl/pseuds/Lwoorl
Summary: He stands far away, looking at this person that they tell him is his best friend. He has to admit, it looks like him, with black hair and blue eyes and that S on his chest. It's not too hard to picture him growing into this person, but… Jon looks at Damian, his eyes wide open like studying him, and come to think of it it's been years for him, isn't that right? He… Might as well not remember him. It makes Damian suddenly afraid for no apparent reason.OrOne day Jon's fine, the next he's 6 years older and coming back from space. Damian isn't sure how to process it.





	While Watching The Sputnik Crash And Burn

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically Damian's pov of my other fic The Day Laika Came Back, but it can be read by itself. I swear to God I wasn't planning on writing this, it just happened.

Something's got to be wrong here. This whole explanation, it can't be right. 

Because… Well, Jon was fine, Damian saw him last month, he was  _ fine.  _ He didn't even know he was away, no one even told him he was in fucking  _ space.  _ And now they come and tell him he's six years older? 

And sure, he lives a life in which people move and die and disappear any day without warning, but it's- This just isn't supposed to happen to Jon! 

He stands far away, looking at this person that they tell him is his best friend. He has to admit, it looks like him, with black hair and blue eyes and that S on his chest. It's not too hard to picture him growing into this person, but… Jon looks at Damian, his eyes wide open like studying him, and come to think of it it's been years for him, isn't that right? He… Might as well not remember him. It makes Damian suddenly afraid for no apparent reason.

“Tt.” He looks away. 

He thinks about it for the rest of the meeting, thoughts about whether he remembers him and if the one who came back is the same person and that kind of thing. It doesn't last though, because he looks back there and sees Jon looking at the floor, his shoulders hunched like a kid being scolded and something inside Damian's chest hurts because  _ of course _ it's fucking Jon. 

Six years.  _ Six years.  _ He remembers coming back after dying, a year for everyone, a second for him, learning all he missed, the little changes in everyone's faces, wondering about the people who was missing. This feels even worse. 

He walks there, not knowing what to say, yet half a word already out his mouth, and then Jon startles, turns around and leaves Damian there, looking at the air like a moron. 

That's…. Damian isn't sure what that was.

Damian isn't trying to meet him, he really isn't. No, really, he isn't. If Metropolis is being busy, and if lately he's having to operate closer to Gotham's neighbor than normal, well that's just a well timed coincidence. And if that gives him a chance to speak with his friend… Well, that's just good luck. 

Not that it matters, because the guy just keeps stepping away anytime Damian does as much as staring in his direction. He tries several times, in different ways, all of them just end in Superboy flying away. 

And all the way, Damian waits. Waits for a kid with bright eyes to knock at his door, for a phone call with a familiar voice at the other end, for the Jonathan Kent he knows to just  _ appear. _

Some time in, one day, he's doing something, whatever, reading a book or watching TV, and then he realizes that, that  _ waiting _ for this person to appear, to call, to show up, it's the same thing he was doing when Grayson faked his death. That realization has him standing up, dressing in inconspicuous clothes and crossing the bridge to Metropolis.

He wants to talk to Jon. No, no wants. He  _ has _ to. Now. He's acting like someone died and everyone's  _ alive.  _ He won't accept it, he won't be left to  _ mourn _ when his friend is right there 

If he isn't interested in him, if he doesn't remember him, if he sees him as a bothersome child, that's fine, he's fine with it, he's fine with a dismissal, but he has to exchange words with him  _ now. _

 

_ “Why are you avoiding me?!” _

_ “Why do you think?” _

_ “Tt. Of course.”  _

 

He doesn't see him for a while, a long while. He tries not to get too hung out on that, after all these things happen, right? Friendship fall out, that happens. It doesn't matter if it happened out of nowhere, or because a time travel universal asspull, it doesn't, it's just a friendship ending, happens to everyone. So Damian doesn't think about it and stops himself any time he does anything even vaguely resembling grief, and time moves on.

Then there's an alien invasion and of course he goes to help. He  _ isn't  _ acting recklessly, he isn't, really, but he gets hit nonetheless. His leg was already hurting from a previous blow, and it makes it hard to avoid the next hit, so he plummets. 

He braces for the next attack, but instead of feeling any new pain he hears something that sounds like “Don't touch him!” And the sense there's a figure standing in front of him. 

It's too quickly for him to see, but soon the alien is on the ground, and Jon bends down in front of him, a hand extended towards him.

Because of course he would do that, Damian thinks, of course he ignores him and belittles him for  _ months _ but as soon as he's in danger he turns into the shining knight who's going to save this pathetic child, because sure, Damian isn't worth his time to exchange more than three words, but as a helpless victim? Yeah, for that he qualifies, that he can do.  _ ‘Don't touch him.’  _ What the hell was even that? Jon's not even  _ that  _ older now. What the hell was that? What the hell was that attempt at concern, after ignoring him for so long? He doesn't have the right, who gave him the right? Damian wants to flip him off. 

Instead, he just slaps his hand away. “I don't need your help, don't treat me like a kid.” 

Jon frowns, in a way Damian hadn't seen before, and exclaims “Stop being so fucking stubborn, you could have died!” 

He's taken aback for a moment by the swear, because  _ since when does goodie two shoes Jon Kent say fuck?  _ But recovers quickly and goes to stand up. 

His side screams in protest as he does so, and he's barely able to leave the ground before he's falling forward, tired and bruised. He gets ready for the ground, and instead finds something similar to a hug. Without saying much else Jon bends down and unceremoniously picks him up. 

He doesn't fight, he's too drained for that, his leg aches and his chest hurts, one of his arms is also in bad shape. Jon places him between his arms, in a way he can sit down comfortably, and then flies.

Damian argues, obviously, but Jon won't listen. It's stupid and ridiculous, and he can't quite understand it. It's over, he's saved, Superboy bested the bad guy pointing a gun at this kid, he doesn't need to stop everything to get him somewhere else, the battle is going well, but they could still lose. He doesn't get it, why Jon thinks of him as important enough to leave the battle, not when he's made it crystal clear they aren't friends anymore.  

“Why?” He finds himself asking despite himself. 

He's expecting several possible answers 'I would do it for anyone’, 'it's my responsibility as a superhero to save those who are weak’, 'I can't leave a  _ child  _ in the middle of a war zone’, something stupidly heroic and inspiring and yet offensive to an extend. What he isn't ready for is “Because you're my best friend.”

“But I thought…” He stops. The words suddenly stick to his throat like half chewed bubblegum, dense and suffocating. He takes a moment to reorder his thoughts, then goes on. “Then why have you been avoiding me? I… Thought you didn't want to see me.”

“I guess that's a normal conclusion to get to. But, no, that's not why.” He answers, like that clarifies everything, like it validates all the anxiety and sadness and melancholy of thinking a person he cares about suddenly _ fucking hates him. _ It makes Damian's blood boil.

_ “Then why?!”  _

Jon takes a deep breath, in a way Damian can feel how his stomach expands against his back. He holds it, lets it go, takes it again, and says. “I didn't think you would like the person I'm now.”

There's only one possible reply to that. “You're really an idiot if you thought that.”

Jon laughs and holds him closer. Damian won't admit it, but it feels nice. 

**Author's Note:**

> As always!!! Please remember to leave a comment!!!! It means a lot!!!! Like a whole fucking lot!!!! PLEASE!


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